Romance of Biscuits

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21462, 8 April 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

Romance of Biscuits

The biscuit industry of Great Britain, with its spacious factories in Reading, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Carlisle, Glasgow, Edinburgh and other cities, turning out over 400 varieties and employing very many thousands of men and women, holds a pre-eminent position throughout the world, unrivalled for its scientific methods, the excellence of its products and the extent of its operations.

"Who was the genius who not only foresaw this possibility, but who had tho practical insight and confidence to build the first private biscuit factory? For answer to tho last question wo must go back in imagination some ninety years. A young man of ambition, courage and ideas, by name George Palmer, is seen entering Reading in 1841 and linking himself to a local confectioner by tho name of Thomas Huntley. Thus began a partnership which was destined to transform what was then a casual occupation into a great national industry with an international reputation. . In the modern biscuit factory is a bewildering labyrinth of appliances, of huge ovens representing miniature tunnels through which trays of newly manufactured biscuits are passed in endless succession, of electrically driven doughmixers, pastry moulding machines, kneading plants, automatic wrapping machines, refrigerating plant and other scientific inventions, all of which have

RISE OF A GREAT INDUSTRY

been introduced so that the perfect buscuit may bo produced.

The visitor is amazed at the variety of the ingredients which enter into the composition of some of the productions of the biscuit manufacturer and the scrupulous care taken to ensure their perfection. Flour, sugar, butter, fruit, rice, spices, cocoanuts, flavourings—the hugo consignments of these articles will convey some idea of the important part that the biscuit industry plays in the life of the people. In 1905 one firm reported that the number of operatives employed in the manufacture of their biscuits and cakes and of the packages to contain them had risen to nearly 7000, while the butter and milk which were then used daily represented the yield of more than 19,000 cows and the eggs of nearly 150,000 hens. Biscuits have become part of our daily lives, from the early morning cup of tea to the midday lunch, thence to that friendly institution, afternoon tea, the after-dinner ritual of biscuits with dessert, and finally with the supper milk or chocolate. Through the seven ages of man, from the nursery, where the little toddler plays with and enjoys the alphabet biscuits, through schooldays (and what schoolboy would not miss his mother's biscuit tin?) to the days of work and adventure (how many Arctic explorers and tropical adventurers have blessed the convenient rations of biscuits in the commissariat!), to the drawing room function of the hostess or the club gatherings of the select —it is the biscuit habit all the way.